Capacity building in civil society : NGO networks in the regions of Mexico
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The study is a comparative analysis of the development of two networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Jalisco and their contribution to the strengthening of the political capacities of NGOs. A new view of civil society is introduced that emphasizes its multiple functions and forms the basis for disaggregating capacity into three dimensions: defensive, propositional and infrastructural. A political process approach draws from social movement theory for understanding the emergence and activities of NGO networks. The development of NGOs in Mexico from the 1960s through the 1990s is analyzed as the result of mobilization in response to political opportunities arising from transformations to the political and social policy regimes of the Mexican state. The study compares the national pattern with the experience of two regional NGO networks: Foro de Organismos Civiles de Oaxaca (FOCO) and Foro de Organismos Civiles de Jalisco (FOCIV). Each network emerged in response to state-level defensive and propositional opportunities. Comparative historical case studies and a latitudinal analysis of linkage development reveal the contribution of these two networks to capacity-building. Increased communication between member organizations was an positive result of the network activities. However, neither network strengthened linkages of NGOs with popular movements, political parties, or the state. The study confirms earlier research findings that these types of networks contribute to the development of pluralism in civil society, but reveals the defence of NGO autonomy to be a barrier to greater linkage development. The focus on autonomy can distance NGOs from other important political actors and their struggles, hinder coordination with other actors, and thus reduce the political effectiveness of the networks. The two cases also illustrate the important role of third-order NGOs to the development of the sector as a whole, and suggest that linkages tend to be stronger in networks where third-order NGOs promote network development.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".